Kane Cornes hopes Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley was sterner behind the scenes than in his press conference following the heavy loss to West Coast.
The Eagles went into the main break on Saturday night with a 52-point advantage over the visitors, having piled on scores from Power turnovers.
“At half-time, the stats (had) West Coast +23 in contested football, +10 in clearances and +44 in uncontested footy,” Cornes recounted on SEN SA Breakfast.
“Ken Hinkley was very forgiving after the game.
“I hope he wasn’t that forgiving to the players behind the scenes.”
Hinkley was in good spirits when he spoke with reporters, believing the statistical discrepancy could be closed with crisper ball use.
“We gave (the ball) back. We’ve been really clean with our ball for a good period of time … tonight, we didn’t handle it as well,” he explained.
“I understand it’s not perfect every week, but we’ll learn a lot from what happened tonight.
“We’re still a pretty good team."
The Port Adelaide champion warned Hinkley he was letting the players off the hook at their “first test”, after dishing out four consecutive thumpings across the pre-season and opening rounds.
“The test was coming. This week against Richmond, (and) last week against West Coast,” Cornes warned.
“They failed at the first hurdle.”
The Power sit fourth on the ladder through three games, after spending 20 home-and-away rounds in a row at the summit.
“This team has been up for a long time … you’ve got to give them credit and back them in for the quality outfit that they’ve been,” Cornes acknowledged.
“I just hope Ken Hinkley was a bit more demanding of his group and a bit more disappointed than what he said publicly, because he gave them a mulligan, basically.”
Port Adelaide host Richmond at 7:50 on Friday night in Adelaide, with the loser of the preliminary final rematch to slip back to 2-2.